Hospital Life and Babies

Hospital life

The Koutiala Hospital for Women and Children keeps on going! It is
exciting to look at the progress we have made. The first month of
opening, we had about 20 patients a day in clinic and 2 or 3 deliveries
a week. Now, we see 60- 75 patients in clinic each day and do an
average of 3 deliveries a day! We did 3 surgeries yesterday and one
today! If you look too closely at the hospital, it's easy to get
discouraged and see all the faults, but if you stand back and see where
God has brought us, my only appropriate response is to praise Him for
what he has done!

Babies

Newborn care is one thing we have been focusing on lately here at the
hospital. It is an area of care that is very new to many of our staff.
It is also an area where we have seen God's incredible grace! Gail
Warner, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, works hard educating staff, doing
neonatal resuscitation at birth, and checking babies before they go
home. Since opening, we have delivered about 300 babies and only 2
have died! We cannot claim any of this success as our own human
effort. It is often in spite of our efforts that babies have lived.
It is common to see mothers who have had 8, 9, 10 pregnancies and only
3 or 4 (or less) living children. This culture doesn't have all the
"touchy feely" stuff that we have in the states to cope with infant
death. The women are incredibly strong, but they do grieve deeply when
their babies die. I pray that not only can we comfort them, but also
show them the way to Jesus Christ, the Ultimate Comforter.

by Carey Schlieker